Volume XII, Issue 1
Introduction: Migrant Waves in the Making of America
Kathy G. Short
This issue of WOW Stories focuses on a literacy community that was created during a two-week NEH Summer Institute at Worlds of Words Center at the University of Arizona. The institute was attended by thirty K-12 teachers who came from across the U.S. to spend an intense two weeks together, meeting 9-4:30 in Worlds of Words Center in a range of explorations around migration.
After the institute, we met virtually in late fall to share what was happening in their classrooms, and the teaching team did a workshop for local teachers around migration as connected to Arizona history. In addition, several teachers from the institute agreed to write about the units they developed for their classrooms and their work is featured in this issue.
Carol Brochin, Leah Durán, and Kathy Short, faculty in the department of Teaching, Learning and Sociocultural Studies (TLS), served as co-directors. Our teaching team included Angelica Serrano, an elementary classroom teacher who was our teacher leader, along with Dan Moreno, Elizabeth Gaxiola, and LaCher Pacheco, educators with many years of teaching experience who were graduate students in TLS. Richelle Vargas was our institute coordinator and master problem-solver. We met regularly for six months to make detailed plans and locate resources for the institute.
The institute met in Worlds of Words Center of Global Literacies and Literatures, in the College of Education. This center contains a collection of 50,000 children’s and young adult books focused on local and global cultures, with the local cultures including extensive Indigenous and Latinx books. As the largest collection of global children’s literature in the U.S., the center provides rich resources for participants. In addition to books and original artwork, Worlds of Words also has extensive online resources, including a database of global literature, book lists, and three journals with online book reviews and articles on global literature in K-12.
Our pedagogy in the institute was interdisciplinary, developing learning experiences around literature, historical records, social science research, artifacts, film and hands-on inquiry. Through literature, scholarly articles, historical and anthropological scholars, and museum collections, teachers gained knowledge and strategies to support their classroom teaching. Teachers explored children’s and young adult literature, experienced humanities research strategies, and engaged with dialogue strategies around literature, which they then brought into their planning for their own classrooms.
A Case Study of Arizona
The institute began with a case study of Arizona, the last continental state added to the union in 1912. This perspective allowed participants to explore stories and perspectives often left out of traditional narratives of U.S. history, which typically begin with the original thirteen colonies. Since many key events in the history of the region predate statehood, a study of Arizona’s history offers an often-overlooked perspective on what it means to become American, particularly the influence of continuous waves of migration on the making of America.
During the second week, teachers used inquiry strategies from the case study to research migrant waves in their states and build multimodal text sets. Throughout the institute our goal was for teachers to learn how to engage in humanities research so they could then bring these strategies into their own teaching.
The first week was framed around different time periods in the history of Arizona, based on the work of Thomas Sheridan (2012), who highlights the contributions of underrepresented groups in Arizona history. Each day was a combination of field trips, discussions around the Sheridan book, responses to fiction literature, browsing of text sets of picturebooks and novels, and interactions with scholars and authors. Teachers received a text set of 14 children’s and young adult books as part of their registration for the institute that also included Sheridan’s book.
We began with a Sunday late afternoon reception as a social event to get to know each other, introducing ourselves through an artifact that reflected a journey in our lives. On Monday, after an introduction to our themes and inquiry questions, we engaged in discussion of the classic novel, Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell (1960), a book many remembered reading in school contexts. Teachers used a T-chart of Personal Response/Critique to respond to this book alongside an article about the vanishing Indian motif in the book. We then explored the multimodal resources on a National Park Service website about this book, that also introduced teachers to an example of a multimodal text set.
In the afternoon, we focused on the early Indigenous history of the land now called Arizona through maps, a chapter from Sheridan, and a chapter from An Indigenous People’s History (Dunbar-Ortiz, 2019). To demonstrate the significance of maps as a historical strategy, each day we used a map of Arizona from that time period, asking groups to See (what do you see?), Think (what do you think is going on?), and Wonder (what do you wonder?).
We also interacted with an Indigenous scholar, Alyce Sadongei, who was part of a team that created guidelines for museum collections of Indigenous peoples. She raised critical issues around Indigenous collections in museums. In addition, we used an artifact strategy, where each table interacted with an Indigenous artifact that LaCher brought from her home, involving Meet the Artifact, Try to Make Sense of It, Use It as Historical Evidence. We ended the day with time for browsing and independent reading of picturebooks on Indigenous Tribal Nations in the Southwest and text sets of counter-narratives to problematic classic texts like Little House on the Prairie (Wilder, 2008) and Island of the Blue Dolphins. (Note that all of our text sets can be found on the institute website).
This introduction to the issues around Indigenous museum collections was an excellent resource for the next morning when we visited the Arizona State Museum on the university campus and experienced first hand both the possibilities and the violations of these collections. When we returned to Worlds of Words, several Indigenous teachers in our group shared their personal feelings of discomfort with the museum interaction, while the rest of us listened carefully to try and understand what was problematic and why. This deeply moving discussion was transformational for many in the institute.
We then moved into examining the period when Arizona was considered part of New Spain, again through maps and readings from Sheridan and Dunbar-Ortiz. After lunch, we engaged in small group discussions using the dialogue strategy of Connect/Extend/Challenge of The Moor’s Account (Lailami, 2015), a fictional diary of the first African explorer of the U.S. Dr. Michael Engs joined us to talk about contributions of people of African descent during the Spanish Colonial Period, as a challenge to history textbooks which only include enslavement as the history of African Americans coming to the U.S.
We ended Tuesday afternoon by exploring the website and historical resources of the Tumacácori Mission to introduce the stories and perspectives of the Tohono O’odham peoples during the Spanish period. The next morning, we took a field trip to San Xavier Mission del Bac on the Tohono O’odham Nation, which is a living church, not just a historical museum. We toured the mission and also met with a Tribal elder, the current Father of the church, and the director of Patronato San Xavier, who provided differing perspectives of the mission experience in the 1800s and the current relationships of the Nation with the church. We stopped by Mission Gardens on the way back to the university. Mission Gardens is a living agricultural museum with garden plots reflecting many different cultures and migrant waves.
In the afternoon, we moved to the Mexican period, when Arizona was part of Mexico and interacted with a scholar, Dr. Anita Huiza-Hernández, on her research on Mexican American history. We also spent time exploring the online Mexican memory project archives of photographs and browsing text sets of children’s books related to Mexican history and culture.
Thursday morning had been planned as a visit to the Arizona History Museum to learn how to research in museum archives, but they had an emergency closure due to plumbing problems. Instead, the two archivists joined us in Worlds of Words and interacted with teachers as they used the online archives to research a question related to Arizona history. We also interacted with Joan Sandin, an author/illustrator of a picturebook, Celebrate Arizona (2012), about the day Arizona became a state. She made extensive use of various archives in researching this book and so could demonstrate how this research influenced both her text and visual images. She brought her original watercolor illustrations and research artifacts for teachers to view.
In the afternoon, we moved into the territorial and early statehood period, exploring maps and jigsaw discussions of chapters from the Sheridan book. We focused on Chinese immigrants to Tucson through online resources and discussions of the graphic novel, Escape to Gold Mountain (Wong, 2012). We also considered queer migration through a Say Something engagement with a short article and spent time browsing text sets around Chinese experiences in the U.S.
On Friday, our case study of Arizona focused on the modern period and recent migrant and refugee waves in Arizona. After a jigsaw discussion of the final section of Sheridan’s book, Tom Sheridan joined us for an interview/discussion. We then moved into browsing picturebooks on immigration and refugee experiences, while some remained with Sheridan for continued conversations.
In the afternoon, small groups discussed Refugee by Alan Gratz (2017), with each group creating a virtual journey map for one of the three stories in the book using jamboard. We also interacted with two community members who are active in refugee organizations to talk about their experiences and recommendations for teachers. The afternoon ended with browsing text sets on the global cultures of recent refugees to Tucson and with meeting in region groups to brainstorm their own multimodal text set projects for the following week.
As is evident from this description, we had an intense first week together, with a range of experiences that were carefully developed to provide interactions with a wide variety of resources and strategies for humanities research. We also worked to build a critical lens from which to view many of these resources, especially museum collections, and to develop awareness of the histories of communities often missing or underrepresented in history textbooks. Teachers from the East Coast realized that much of their curriculum around the Revolutionary War and the Civil War was irrelevant to Arizona history, providing a different lens on their teaching of U.S. history.
Research within the Humanities
Our focus the second week was on highlighting different research strategies within the humanities, through returning to our case study of Arizona in the mornings to identify resources for their own multimodal text sets. In the afternoons, teachers worked on their own inquiries by using these research strategies. They also met daily with teachers who taught at a similar grade level or subject area to share ideas and resources in a Curricular Conversation about how to use timelines and maps in their classrooms or how they might raise difficult topics with students.
On Monday, we focused on the research strategies of authors and illustrators. Teachers created charts of the strategies and resources they had explored the first week and used Save the Last Word to discuss Angeline Boulley’s (2023) Warrior Girl Unearthed. We then had a virtual author panel with Angeline Boulley, Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Elizabeth Partridge, and Lauren Tamaki, all of whom we were reading that week. Teachers broke up into three groups for further conversation with one of these authors. In the afternoon, teachers began their research on their own states, time periods, or communities, as well as explored text sets of books by the authors on the panel.
On Tuesday, we focused on the use of oral history and narratives within the humanities, discussing short stories from Songs My Mother Sang to Me: An Oral History of Mexican American Women by Patricia Preciado Martin (1992), using consensus boards. Patricia then joined us for an interactive interview and conversation around her use of oral history research. Teachers browsed a text set of her books as well as children’s books on Latinx families and communities. In the afternoon, teachers considered how they might use oral narratives and histories in their own inquiries and worked on their research.
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- Land of Cranes
In the afternoon, teachers presented their multimodal inquires to each other using PechaKucha slides (20 slides at 10 seconds a slide). They also met in age level/subject matter groups to discuss plans for bringing the content of this institute and their text sets into their classrooms. We talked about future opportunities for dissemination from the institute (such as creating this issue of WOW Stories) and engaged in several closing experiences.
The Vignettes in this Issue
This institute was grounded in themes of migration and in humanities research strategies to learn how to research and weigh evidence by exploring historical content alongside fictional narratives. Teachers developed strategies for locating, evaluating and interpreting evidence and a critical lens to question whose stories are misrepresented or silent. They left the institute not only with resources, literature, and historical materials, but also with experiences of research to enact in their educational settings.
The vignettes in this issue reflect the work of our teaching team and the ways in which teachers enacted their inquiries in their classroom settings.
- Leah Durán reflects on why we considered migration to be such a generative theme for the institute.
- Carol Brochin looks more closely at the multimodal text sets and how these sets were woven throughout the institute and framed the work of teachers.
- Elizabeth Gaxiola, a member of our teaching team, engaged community college students in responding to literature through photo collages.
- Kim Warren describes her work with secondary students in Utah, many of whom are immigrants from a range of global settings, and how she wove picturebooks and novels into the classroom to invite strong connections for students.
- Agnes Zapata connected historical events of African American migration within the U.S. with current migrations of Guatemalan families for high school students in Oakland, California.
- Kari Matthies developed a study of African American culture and history within Minnesota for special education high school students.
- Roxann Hunsaker broadened her curriculum to not only embrace the cultures of Latinx sixth-grade students in Illinois, but also to invite them to explore the experiences of global cultures through a focus on migration.
- Holly Hardin describes how she took a middle school science unit on the human body and deepened it through examining how body systems are impacted by human rights.
For these educators, having the time to gather text sets of books, videos, music, and other materials as well as planning a stronger focus on migration provided the space for new discussions and insights. These inquiries also invited stronger student engagement in learning and connected contemporary and historical issues and contexts.
The institute also changed us as a teaching team, providing us with new insights into the ways in which resources, literature, and experiences can be woven together to create powerful learning experiences for teachers. We were all kept busy throughout the institute, meeting individual requests and thinking with teachers about their multimodal text sets. We were also continuously moved by their thoughtful responses to literature and eager engagement with authors and scholars.
The last several years have been very difficult for teachers and teacher educators, filled with constant attacks from public officials and the media. The institute provided us with an opportunity to renew our commitment to making a difference by inviting teachers to consider significant issues through powerful pieces of literature.
References
Binford, W., ed. (2021). Hear my voice/escucha mi voz. Workman.
Boulley, A. (2023). Warrior girl unearthed. Macmillan.
Dunbar-Ortiz, R. (2019). An Indigenous people’s history of the United States. Adapted by J. Menoza & D. Reese. Beacon Press.
Gratz, A. (2018). Refugee. Scholastic.
Jamieson, V. & Mohammed, O. (2020). When stars are scattered. Dial.
Lailami, L. (2015). The Moor’s account. Vintage.
Martin, P. P. (1992). Songs my mother sang to me. University of Arizona Press.
McCall, G. G. (2018). All the stars denied. Lee & Low.
O’Dell, S. (1960). Island of the Blue Dolphins. Houghton Mifflin.
Partridge, E. (2022). Seen and unseen: What Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adam’s photographs reveal about the Japanese American Incarceration. Illus. L. Tamaki. Chronicle.
Salazar, A. (2020). Land of the cranes. Scholastic.
Sandin, J. (2012). Celebrate Arizona! Rio Chico.
Sheridan,T. (2012). Arizona: A history. University of Arizona Press.
Uwiringiyimana, S. (2017). How dare the sun rise: Memoirs of a war child. HarperCollins.
Wong, D. (2012). Escape to Gold Mountain: A graphic history of the Chinese in North America. Arsenal Press.
Kathy G. Short is a Regents Professor in the College of Education at the University of Arizona and is Director of Worlds of Words, Center of Global Literacies and Literatures.
Authors retain copyright over the vignettes published in this journal and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under the following Creative Commons License:
WOW Stories, Volume XII, Issue 1 by Worlds of Words is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on by Kathy G. Short work at https://wowlit.org/on-line-publications/stories/xii-1/2.
WOW stories: connections from the classroom
ISSN 2577-0551